Shop Right To Eat Right

Your family's healthy-food choices for the week begin in the grocery cart. Here are experts' tips.

Grocery shoppers know that their art requires a certain savvy. It calls for a sharp eye for bargains and the budget, for the freshness of perishables, for appropriate product quantities and for what’s really going to be consumed rather than wasted. And—oh yes—you want to buy healthy food; stuffing your home with sugary donuts, salty chips and greasy fries and then expecting to deny yourself their pleasures is a recipe for a big fat failure. Fortunately, there are tactics you can use to make your food shopping both health-smart and realistic. Below, three Bergen dietitians share tips.

• Come prepared. Walking into a grocery store without a plan can result in overspending and buying food that will go to waste. Our experts recommend planning out a weekly menu before you get to the store, and only buying items on your list. “Take a quick look in your pantry to make sure you’re stocked up on staple foods you regularly use,” says Sharon Wieder. Another Wieder tip: Include your family members in the planning process. “They may be more likely to try new, healthier foods if they have a say in the menu,” she says. A good rule of thumb, says Janet Brancato, for each week when you’ll be home (and not out) for most of your meals, is to aim to buy “six choices for vegetables, five fruits, four starches/grains, three proteins, two fat sources and one type of herbs/spices/seasonings.”
• Start at the perimeter. The outer edges of the grocery store are where you’ll find fresh produce, protein and the generally less-processed items, so shop the perimeter first. “The more you fill up on produce, poultry, seafood, eggs, legumes, nuts, seeds and healthy oils, the less room in your stomach (and your pantry!) for pre-packaged foods,” says Robin DeCicco. Brancato says to start in the produce area, get meal inspiration by seeing which fruits and veggies are in season, and take it from there. Another tip that grocery-shelf stock boys might not want you to know? Items placed at eye level are what the store especially wants you to buy. “Look for savings and coupons for items above or below eye level,” says Brancato.
• Purchase lots of protein. Proteins are often the most expensive part of a meal. But there’s a wide array of affordable, healthy, tasty options that you can easily incorporate into your family’s lunches and dinners. DeCicco likes organic ground turkey with which to make a bolognese sauce or burgers, organic chicken breast or frozen or fresh wild fish such as cod, flounder, sole or salmon. Enjoying healthy fish doesn’t have to break the bank, either. “My favorite quick protein option that requires no cooking at all is canned wild salmon,” says DeCicco. “It’s full of omega-3 fats for heart/brain health and can be eaten straight out of the can or mixed with spicy mustard, red onion and pickles for a salmon salad to throw into a wrap or over veggies.”
  There are healthy, relatively inexpensive vegetarian protein options as well. Nuts and seeds, for example, “are high in protein and can be added to any salad, pasta dish or casserole,” says DeCicco. Brancato likes peanut butter and eggs as solid protein choices, and canned legumes and beans are a smart choice too. “Add them to salads, make bean burgers, turn them into hummus, make a bean salad, mash them up like mashed potatoes or add them to ground meat dishes to lessen the intake of meat,” DeCicco says.

• Read the labels. It’s nearly impossible to buy exclusively “natural” unprocessed foods, but make sure the packaged stuff you’re bringing home is relatively good for you. When reading the labels, “always look for at least five grams of fiber and protein and less than eight grams of added sugar per serving,” Brancato advises. These macronutrients are what keep us full and stabilize blood sugar. Additionally, says DeCicco, “look for as few ingredients as possible, reading the label to make sure it doesn’t contain additives, a lot of added sugar, shelf stabilizers, food dyes and chemicals you can’t pronounce.”
• Shop the sales. Shopping healthy doesn’t have to be expensive—you just need to know how to shop for the discounts. First things first, Brancato suggests checking the sales online or in catalogs before heading to the store, and creating meals with those discounted items. DeCicco says foods in their “natural form” are less expensive than processed items, and these should be prioritized. “For example, avocados are cheaper than pre-packaged guacamole, and fresh eggs are cheaper than pre-cooked, hard-boiled eggs,” she notes. And, says Wieder, don’t assume that buying in bulk is necessarily more cost-efficient. “You should know the price per ounce or pound,” she says. “Items on sale at your local supermarket may actually turn out to be less expensive than larger packages of the same item in box stores.” That’s especially true, of course, if the contents of the big containers don’t all get used.

3 BONUS TIPS

Further practical suggestions from Bergen dietitians about healthy food buying:

• Don’t shop hungry. Research has shown that shopping while hungry leads people to buy more food than they normally would, especially less nutritious foods that weren’t on their grocery list. Plus, notes Sharon Wieder, “one study showed that shoppers who were hungry bought more non-food items and spent 60 percent more than less hungry shoppers.”
• Be smart about fresh vs. frozen vs. canned. It’s not true that canned foods are always to be avoided, says Janet Brancato. “Frozen or canned veggies and fruits can be just as healthy as fresh and will definitely last longer, which minimizes waste.” But there are caveats, notes Wieder: “Make sure there’s not a lot of added sugar or sodium in the frozen and canned fruits and vegetables you purchase.” She adds that frozen may work better if you’re making soups or smoothies, whereas you’ll want to go fresh for salads.
• Save with store brands. Robin DeCicco says Whole Foods’s 365 is an example of a brand that’s more affordable than some national names. For greater economy, she advises, buy the store brand for items such as condiments, jarred sauces, cans of tuna and pasta.